Housing construction rose strongly last month after three months of declines.
Tuesday's report from the Department of Commerce said housing starts rose five percent in May.
That means if construction continued at the same pace for a full year, just under two million homes would be built.
But analysts said the increase was a statistical fluke as builders used unusually good weather to work through a backlog of orders.
Most economists say the U.S. housing market is cooling off as rising interest rates make it more expensive to finance a home.
Key officials of the U.S. central bank are scheduled to consider raising interest rates again at the end of this month in an effort to fend off inflation.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.